Partition locking construction



March 30, 1954 D. F. CUNNINGHAM 2,673,656

PARTITION LOCKING CONSTRUCTION Filed Dec. 17, 1949 w A V /n/ l/E/V To B:DONAL 0 E Cwvu/Msh'mg Patented Mar. 30, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEPARTITION LOCKING CONSTRUCTION Donald F. Cunningham, Whitefish Bay,Wis., as-

signor, by mesne assignments, to Clinton Foods Inc., New York, N. Y., acorporation of Delaware Application December 17, 1949, Serial No.133,614

1 Claim. (Cl. 217-32) The present invention relates generally topartition assemblies for separating bottles, jars, and the like, incontainers, and more particularly to a partition assembly lockingconstruction which lapsed, although accidental displacement of apartition strip from the remaining partition strips of an assembly isreduced to a bare mini-' mum, and which finds wide application.

is particularly efiective for corrugated and other 5 The foregoing andother objects and advanheavy stock. tages are apparent from thefollowing descrip In brief, the present partition assembly locking tiontaken with the accompanying drawing, in construction includes identicalopposed interenwhich: gaging partition strips, each of which is die-cutat F 1 is a pl n V w Of an p partition assempredetermined spacedintervals to include a slot bly adapted to be disposed in a carton forsepextending inwardly from one edge thereof of a ara n of ttl J d thelike, Which in; Width a little greater than the thickness of thecorporates locking construction formed in accord- .stock being employed,the slot funneling to a narance with the teachings of the presentinvention; row short passage, the innermost end of which Fig. 2 is aside elevational view thereof; is at substantially the longitudinalcenter line 3 is all e d elevetienel V thereof; of the partition strip,the passage communicat- Fig. l is an enlarged frag y View f One ing atits inner end with a substantially recend of one of the longitudinalpartition strips tangular opening also of a width a little greatershowing the configura of e locking 0 than the thickness of the stock.The depth of structien; the rectangular opening and the combined depths5 is a w Similar t g- 4 o ne f t of the narrow passage and th funnelorti f transverse partition strips, likewise showing the the slot aresubstantially the same so that there Configuration 0f e lockingConstruction; 7 is an interfittin relationship, Fig. 6 is an enlargedcross-sectional view on Therefore, an object of the prese t i tiosubstantially the line 6-5 of Fig. 2; l is to provide novel partitionassembly locking -7 is an larged frag e ta y c -seeconstruction which isparticularly adapted for i l V w n su stantially th l ne of i use withpartition strip stock of relatively heavy and gauge such as corrugatedboard, and the like. Fig. 8 is a further enlarged frag e hori- Anotherobject i t provide n0ve1 partition zontal cross-sectional view onsubstantially the assembly locking construction in which the transline f6- verse partition strips are readily and effectively Referring to hedraw ng more part cu a y y nested with the longitudinal partitionstrips, or reference numerals, it indicates generally a rvice versa,without damage to the strips and with tition assembly wh rp rat s l nona resulting securely enga in int r1 l struction formed to include theteachings of the, Another object is to provide novel partition Presentinvention. The p t tion assembly Illinassembly locking constructionincorporating iden- 01116165 transverse partition ps l2 and lon ticalcutouts in both the transverse and longi tudinal partiti n s rip M, hlatter being -v tudinal partition strips. trated as nested with theformer, although the Another object is to provide novel partition viceversa proceeding may be followed in formassembly locking construction inwhich a well 40 in th part tion a m l H1- Fiv tran verse is provided ineach partition strip which interpa t ti s p it and e e tudinal p r lock,and in which nesting engagement of the tion strips M e Shown,manifestly, the transverse and longitudinal partition strips is numberof P t t on str ps will dep p the facilitated by corresponding channelsin each. number of units to be separated in Particular Other objects areto provide novel partition containers. assembly locking constructionwhich is relatively Pr d t rm nat y sp d sl ts 6 xt nd int inexpensiveto die-cut, which is rugged in conthe transverse partition strips H!from oneside structicn and, hence, remains effective for its edgethereof, each of which is of a width a little interlocking purposes fora long period of use, greater than the width of the paper stock fromwhich is simple in construction, which is formed which theto-be-received partition ps 14 ar for ready mechanical nesting of thetransverse formed. At its outer end, each slot 56 includes partitionstrips with the longitudinal partition a mouth it formed as a V tofacilitate nesting. strips, or vice versa, which may be manually sep- Atits inner end, each slot 36 includes a convergarated as to the componentpartition strips when ing funnel portion 25] which communicates withrequired when the assembly is substantially cola narrow passage or slot22, the innermost end of which terminates at substantially thelongitudinal center line of the partition strip I2. The inner end of thenarrow slot 22 communicates with a rectangular well or opening 24 formedon the same axis with th slot l6 and being of a width slightly greaterthan the width of the slot l6 and of a depth substantially equal to thecombined depths of the funnel portion 22 of the slot l6 and the narrowslot 22. The narrow slot 22 is of a width twenty-five to fifty percentof the particular stock of the partition strip to be received.

The longitudinal partition strips M are cut in the same manner as thepartition strips i2, but from the opposite edge whenc'onsidering thepartition strips I2 and I4 for nesting purposes, and, hence, thecorresponding cutoutportions in the. partition strips M are similarlymarked with the same reference numerals primed.

Manifestly, the longitudinal strips l4 may be simultaneously nested withthe transverse partition strips l-2-, or the former may be nested one atatime with the latter, depending upon the type of assembly machineemployed. At any rate, the partition strips [2 and E i are nested. atright angles to each other as is fully indicated in Fig 1.

In nesting a longitudinal partition It with the transverse partitionstrips 12, the slot 56 telescopes with its. corresponding slot it untilthe entrance end of the narrow slot 22 engages the entrance endof thenarrow slot 22. Continued downward movement of the longitudinalpartition strip l4 relative to the transverse partition stripl2 movesthe narrow slot 22' and its 211- jacent funnel portion 25 downward untilboth are located within the well 2-4. Similarly, narrow slot- 22 and theadjacent funnel portion 20 will be located in the well 24. The split upper wall of the well will be in engagement with the split upper wall ofthe well 24', and, since the width of the narrow slots 22 and 22 ispreferably less than fifty percent of the width of the stock from whichthe respective received partition strips l2 and M are formed, thepartiti'on strips I 2 and [4 will be interlocked at each of the lockingstructures. The interlock isso effective that it is difficult tomanually separate a selected. partition. strip E2 or i l from thepartition assembly when opened to the operative position shown inFig. 1. It is necessaryto collapse the partition assembly H! in thewellknown manner to. easily separate a selected partition. strip [2 or.[4. Hence, an effective locking. construction is provided.

The slots l6 and I6" are a little wider than the stockfrom which therespective received parti-- tion strips I2 and I4 are formed in order tofacilitate. the. collapsing of the partition assembly is which isrequired. in shipment of the same. Similarly, the wells 24 and 24 aremade a little wider than thestockin order. to accommodate the lips whichdefine the narrow slots 22 and 22 and the funnel portions and 20". Thefunnel portions 20' and 20 facilitate the final nesting movemen-t of themoving partition. strip into locking engagement with the stationarypartition strip.

The present invention has been illustrated as applied to corrugatedstock, and it is particularly adapted to this type of paper board, butit may be employed with other stock. Corrugated paper board stock isrelatively easily crushed and deformed, a deficiency which is overcomeby the present locking construction. The cooperating narrow slots 22'and 22 permit the interpassage of the corrugated material withoutcrushing the same, there being a suflicient amount of resiliency in thismaterial to return to normal shape after the minor compression of thisultimate nesting movement.

Hence, there has been provided a locking construction for partitionassemblies which fulfills the objects and: advantages sought therefor.

It is to be understood that the foregoing description and theaccompanying drawing have been given by way of illustration and example.It is also to be understood that changes in form of the elements,rearrangement of parts, and substitution of equivalent elements, whichwill be obvious to those skilled in the art, are contem-- plated aswithin the scope of the present invention which is limited only by theclaim which follows.

What is claimed is:

A partition assembly including interlocked transverse and longitudinalstrips of compressible sheet-like material, said strips being retainedin interlocked assembled relation by a locking construction comprisingformed in the transverse and longitudinal strips, each of said slotsbeing formed symmetrically about an imaginary straight line andextending perpendicularly from a horizontal edge of its respective stripto a point substantially beyond half the width of the strip, each ofsaid slots including a, converging mouth portion adjacent said edge, anelongated portion having parallel edges spaced apart a distance inexcess of the thickness of th sheet-like material, a converging funnelportion, a restricted portion having parallel edges spaced apart adistance less than the thickness of the sheet-like material, and arectangular well portion having parallel edges spaced apart a distancein excess of the thickness of the sheet-like material, said slotportions being interconnected in the order recited, the interconnectionbetween the restricted portion and the well portion being substantiallyat the half width of the respective strip, and the length of the wellportion being substantially equal to the combined length of theconverging funnel portion and the restricted portion.

DONALDF. CUNNINGHAM.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 606,913 Bower July 5, 1898 629,041 Mark July 18, 1899 654,508Bohn July 24,. 1900 1,134,823 Daly' Apr. 6, 1915 2,466,275 Ringel Apr.5-, 1949 identical open slots

